no title

Group planned actions that led to shutdown

Letters Policy

The Dispatch welcomes letters to the editor from readers. Typed letters of 200 words or
fewer are preferred; all might be edited. Each letter must include name, home address and daytime
phone number.
Dispatch.com also posts letters that don't make it to print in
The Dispatch.

FAX

Also in Opinion

Subscribe to The Dispatch

Already a subscriber?
Enroll in EZPay and get a free gift!
Enroll now.

Thursday October 10, 2013 5:33 AM

How naïve can I be? I assumed that the Republican efforts to defund or delay Obamacare were a
true heartfelt effort by all those involved, even if that effort resulted in a government shutdown.
Heartfelt effort, my foot.

I read the
New York Times article “Standoff planned by the right” in the Sunday
Dispatch that, shortly after President Barack Obama started his second term, a loose-knit
group of conservative activists, financed by billionaire brothers David and Charles H. Koch,
gathered to plot strategy to defund Obamacare. Activities included having conservative lawmakers
convince their fellow Republicans to vote to defund Obamacare, regardless of the consequences.

Other actions included threatening Republicans with score cards on their health-care votes,
talking points, sample letters to newspaper editors and pre-written Twitter and Facebook postings,
all committed to a common goal of crippling Obamacare.

This shutdown is the well-orchestrated result of the pre-determined strategy developed earlier
this year, well before the current shutdown happened. This is all so unnecessary, and should be
resolved in the ballot boxes of 2014 or 2016.

Until Republicans gain control of both houses of Congress and the presidency, Obamacare is the
law of the land.

What are they so afraid of? That they might lose these elections, or that after a year or so of
Obamacare, the public will fully support the law?